Introduction

The Mariani Foundation has become an outstanding reference point in a new and emerging sector in neuroscience: “The Neurosciences and Music”. This activity takes place in collaboration with some of the most prestigious scientific international organizations working in the field, first and foremost the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), under the aegis of which the project was first started in 2000.

Since 2002, the Foundation has independently organized one congress every third year, involving: the most eminent experts in the field of neurobiology, physiology, psychology, neuropsychology applied to music, with special emphasis placed on developmental age issues, and musicians interested in the study of the characteristics of perception, performance and music creation. The aim is promoting a multidisciplinary approach to scientific investigation in this specific branch of neuroscience.

Thanks to the congresses organized (in Venice in 2002, Leipzig in 2005, Montreal in 2008, Edinburgh in 2011, Dijon in 2014, and Boston in 2017), the fundamental publications that followed on the subject edited by the New York Academy of Sciences, and the production and online dissemination of the newsletter Neuromusic News, the Mariani Foundation is acting on the international scene as an intermediary between scientists, musicians and everyone who is actively committed to the study of this branch of science.